University of Mississippi

 

 

 

I. CHAPTER ONE: Dreary Moralizers 

Children’s magazines have existed in the United States for 222 years. The first periodical 

for children was published the year George Washington became the new nation’s first president 

and over the next two centuries these publications were shaped by and recorded such happenings 

as geographic expansion, the Civil War, transportation and technological advancements 

including the invention of railroads, automobiles, radios, televisions, computers, and the Internet. 

Children’s magazines are an important part of the written record of American civilization from 

the Industrial Revolution to the Digital Revolution and an invaluable resource about society’s 

tastes, manners, habits, interests, and achievements.

 

The constantly evolving territory of children’s magazine publishing in 2011 is almost as 

uncharted as that of the 1780s. The field of American children’s periodicals has disappointingly 

little scholarship available.

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 Although serious analysis of children’s literature began in the 1960s 

the investigation of magazines has attracted limited interest from researchers. “The study of the 

children’s periodical in America, it must be concluded, is a neglected area within the relatively 

neglected field of children’s literature, and although there may be differences in opinion about 

what is most worthy of study, few would deny that a wealth of opportunities for study exists,” 

reported R. Gordon Kelly in 

Children’s Periodicals of the United States: Historical Guides to 

the World’s Periodicals and Newspapers

.

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Two centuries of experience has not provided the world of children’s periodical 

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publishing with any maps or easy to follow guides. As the planet turns and changes so do its 

inhabitants’ interests, and children’s tastes are even more difficult to predict than those of adults. 

As 

Sports Illustrated Kids

 marketing director Susan Alexander explained, “Probably more than 

with any other group of consumers, we have to do more research with kids for the simple reason 

that we are not kids and can’t presume that we’re totally on target all the time.”

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Children’s 

magazines encounter the same problems as those for adults plus additional special obstacles.